Chapter 18: Heading to the Juvenile Detention Center
"Mr. Ijichi, if you keep trembling like that, you're going to shake the steering wheel off."
Inside the auxiliary supervisor's car, the atmosphere was so tense it felt as if the air itself had hardened into concrete.
Kiyotaka Ijichi was drenched in sweat. His fingers gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles had gone white.
From time to time, he glanced nervously into the rearview mirror.
Yami sat in the back seat with his eyes closed, holding the long black sword case across his knees. His breathing was so faint it was almost imperceptible.
And yet, for some reason, Ijichi could feel the temperature in the car rising by the second.
It was not the heater.
Not the weather.
It was tension.
A tightly suppressed pressure, like fire sealed beneath a thin layer of ash.
"I I'm sorry!"
Ijichi stammered, forcing the words out through a dry throat.
"But this mission... this one is really no joke."
"Even though the initial assessment was Grade 1, based on the cursed energy residue at the scene..."
His grip tightened even further.
"There's a very high chance this is actually a Special Grade case."
The moment he said the words Special Grade, his voice changed.
For sorcerers, that term meant only one thing.
Despair.
For ordinary jujutsu sorcerers, encountering a Special Grade Cursed Spirit left only two real options.
Run.
Or die.
"Special Grade, huh..."
Megumi Fushiguro, seated in the passenger seat, frowned deeply.
His phone was in his hand, Gojo Satoru's contact already open on the screen, but his thumb hovered over the call button without pressing it.
"Gojo-sensei is away on a business trip. Okkotsu-senpai is overseas."
Megumi's voice was low and grave.
"Right now, the only combat force available is the four of us first years."
Yuji Itadori, sitting beside Yami in the back, scratched the back of his head, looking genuinely confused.
"Special Grade? Is it really that bad?"
He blinked.
"Didn't Yami already beat one before?"
He tilted his head.
"It kind of just felt... okay?"
Nobara Kugisaki, who had been touching up her makeup with complete disregard for the mood in the car, let out a small scoff.
"Seriously. They called us out like it was the apocalypse."
She snapped her compact shut.
"With that creepy expressionless swordsman and Sukuna's vessel on our side, how are we supposed to lose?"
"No."
Yami opened his eyes.
The moment he spoke, the air in the car seemed to drop several degrees.
Those dark red eyes were calm, but beneath that calm was a deathly stillness.
"This time is different."
His voice was not loud.
But every word landed heavily enough to make the others tense.
"The last one was barely more than a half formed infant."
"But this one..."
His fingers drifted over the hilt inside the sword case.
He could feel it.
Shiranui was trembling.
Not out of fear.
Out of excitement.
Out of warning.
It had already caught the scent of something far more dangerous.
"This time, it's the real thing."
Yami's gaze remained fixed ahead.
"A genuine Special Grade."
A brief pause followed.
Then he finished quietly.
"People will die."
Silence fell instantly.
The casual ease vanished from the car.
Yuji's half smile froze on his face.
Nobara's hand stopped in midair.
Megumi turned around sharply and stared at Yami.
"Yami. Did you sense something?"
Yami did not answer directly.
Instead, he turned his head and looked out the window.
The sky was heavy and dark, swollen with low hanging clouds that made the world feel claustrophobic.
In the distance, the Juvenile Detention Center loomed under a pitch black curtain.
It was not simply a barrier.
It looked more like the mouth of hell.
Those rotten old men are getting impatient, Yami thought coldly.
Sending first years into a Special Grade mission while Gojo was away was not a mistake.
It was an execution.
Maybe they wanted Yuji dead.
Maybe they wanted him dead too.
Maybe both.
"We're here."
Ijichi slammed the brakes.
The car stopped before the detention center's massive iron gate.
The place was sealed shut. Not a single ray of light escaped from inside. Only foul, sludge like cursed energy seeped through the cracks, thick and nauseating.
The four of them stepped out.
Before that towering black curtain, they looked absurdly small.
"Listen to me."
Ijichi wiped the cold sweat from his face and forced himself to speak.
"This mission is only for confirming survivors. That's all."
"If you encounter a Special Grade Cursed Spirit, do not fight."
His voice cracked.
"Run. Or die."
"Please, I'm begging you. Make running your first choice."
Yuji took a deep breath and cracked his knuckles.
"Got it. So as long as we rescue the survivors, that's enough, right?"
Even though Yami's words had left him uneasy, he still forced himself to sound upbeat.
After all, the whole reason he had stepped into this world was to save people.
Megumi summoned Divine Dog immediately.
"Divine Dogs. Stay alert."
The black and white shikigami emerged from the shadows, growling low at the gate.
Their tails were tucked.
Even the shikigami could sense it.
Whatever waited inside was dangerous.
"Yami?"
Nobara frowned when she noticed he had not moved.
Yami stood at the front of the group, one hand already resting on the hilt within the case on his back.
His stance was subtle, but it was unmistakable.
He was prepared to draw at any instant.
Total Concentration Breathing.
A great volume of air compressed into his lungs.
His blood accelerated.
His body temperature began to rise.
In his vision, the black curtain ahead was not still.
It writhed.
Like some immense living stomach, waiting for prey to walk inside on its own.
"Stay close to me."
Yami's voice cut cleanly through the sound of the wind.
"Do not stray more than three steps."
His gaze stayed on the darkness ahead.
"Otherwise..."
"Not even a god will be able to save you."
Then he stepped through the curtain.
Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara exchanged one last look.
Then all three gritted their teeth and followed.
The moment their figures vanished into the darkness, Ijichi collapsed to his knees outside the gate, all the strength draining from his body.
"It's over..."
His lips trembled.
"It's really over..."
...
Inside the curtain, the sky had turned an eerie dark purple.
The buildings around them twisted and warped, their geometry broken and surreal, like a madman's painting dragged into reality.
Gravity itself seemed unstable.
Water from broken pipes was flowing upward.
"This... is this the territory of a Special Grade?"
Megumi's face went pale.
Though it was not a fully formed Domain Expansion, the cursed energy overflowing through the space had already begun distorting reality itself.
The pressure here was unlike anything they had ever experienced.
"Urgh..."
Nobara covered her mouth, nearly gagging.
The stench of blood and decay saturated the air.
Severed limbs and mangled corpses littered the ground.
Some belonged to the rescue team that had gone in before them.
Some belonged to the detained juveniles trapped in this place.
"How could this..."
Yuji's gaze locked onto a body that had been torn in half.
Its name tag matched one of the survivors on the list Ijichi had shown them.
His eyes immediately reddened.
"Were we too late?"
"Don't get distracted."
Yami's voice cut through Yuji's grief like a blade.
"It's here."
"Hehehe..."
A sharp, grating laugh suddenly echoed from every direction at once.
It sounded like fingernails scraping a blackboard.
Cold ran down everyone's spine.
Then the darkness ahead began to churn violently.
A terrifying wave of cursed energy surged toward them like a tsunami.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Heavy footsteps echoed one by one, each one seeming to land directly on the beating of their hearts.
Then it emerged.
A malformed white Cursed Spirit covered in eyes, its body twisted and inhuman, slowly stepped out from the shadows.
It stared at the four of them like a predator looking at neatly plated food.
Its mouth split open, revealing rows of jagged teeth.
"Ah..."
Yuji's legs trembled.
This was instinct.
Before an absolute predator, prey could do nothing but shake.
Yami slowly drew Shiranui.
The black blade flashed with a cold gleam beneath the purple sky.
He did not turn around.
He only spoke calmly.
"Don't freeze."
His voice was as steady as ever.
"If you want to live... fight for it."
Shiranui let out a clear, resonant cry.
Like the roar of a dragon waking from slumber.
The Special Grade tilted its head, almost curious, as though wondering why this insignificant little human had the audacity to draw a blade against it.
Then, in the next instant
It vanished.
.....
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